Summer, I Will Buy You a Garden

Last night was the first of the two part premiere of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which is a new television series based on the Terminator movies. Before anyone says, "Oh, but the third movie was horrible and they're also making a fourth", people must understand that the producers of Chronicles are basically resetting the Terminator time line and pretending as if the third movie never happened. That should ease the disdain of many Terminator fans.

Now I do not confess to be a Terminator fanatic, but I did enjoy the second movie at least the parts I remembered. But, with the writer strike screwing up the television schedule (no new episodes of any fall shows and no 24 !) I needed a show to attach to. Enter The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Let me just say, so far, from the first episode, I can get used to the series. I can not promise I will stick with it, but the Terminator story line was always a strong one: robots take over the future and kill off most of humanity, but the robot from the future comes to the past to protect the savior of mankind. So you see, there is some time traveling involved that even comes to play in the first episode.

The acting does not scream awesome to me as the acting in Lost does, but can I say something? What is up with television and hot, relatively young mothers. I don't mean mothers in the slang sense (yo, mothahuggaz) but in the birth-giving sense. Sarah Connor, the mother of John, is good-looking. And if you like pretty people, you have to see my renewed favorite: Cameron, the new terminator, played by Firefly's Summer Glau. Oh, how I miss Firefly. However, I am a little upset that Summer has to play another not so human role. I guess it gives her an excuse to look hot and expressionless, but I can see myself getting tired of that face soon if she doesn't become a human-acting robot. Or is it the other way around?

Just as a tangent, my perverse geek side is thinking about steamy robot to human loving. Hey, if Battlestar Galactica can get away with it, why not robots from the future. Plus she's Summer Glau, the all powerful River Tam.

One thing I hope for that's not too perverse is that the series focuses on story a little more than the action. Whereas Heroes this season had a horrible story and almost no action (where's the teleport battle!), Chronicles' first episode pretty much had the robots destroy everything and everywhere. Good action, but it can get old. They have good material to work with, what with the future robots, the resistance, and skynet's creation. I can envision the lore of science-fiction combined with the intense pace of 24, but without any terrorists and a little less explosions.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles, with a little more tweaking, can be a promising scripted show in what is to be a spring season deluged in crappy reality a.k.a. crapality shows (ya, fired).

Plus, Summer Glau is the bomb, not just because she's gorgeous, but because people need to represent for the Firefly Alumni.